Mumbai’s Male Masseurs: the Dark Trade

India's Migrant Males Forced Into Prostitution

By Naomi Canton

Charles Fox

ST, 26, came to Mumbai from his village in Mathura district looking for work. He is now a masseur, charging between 50 rupees to 500 rupees for a massage. He also regularly engages in sex work. His family thinks he works in a spoon factory.

They clink glass bottles on the streets and beaches of Mumbai to attract customers. They are ashamed of what they do but are driven by poverty and no other means of earning a living. These are the city’s male masseurs, many of whom are pushed into prostitution.

A photographic exhibition that captures the grim lives of this community is on display in London.

Taken by British photojournalist Charles Fox, the 30 portraits of these men in their cramped homes in slums across Mumbai after their night shifts, tell a bleak story.

Lured to the city by the prospect of money and escaping poorly-paid agricultural jobs, these men struggled to find other jobs before becoming masseurs.

Most left school as teenagers; some are as young as 12. Their clients range from 20 to 80 years old and they give massages to up to 15 men every night.

“The aim of the exhibition is to let it be known these people exist and to find some way of supporting them,” said Mr. Fox.

When he visited their rooms, which they sometimes share with other 30 to 40 people, Mr. Fox said there were many signs of alcohol and drug abuse.

While they charge 100 rupees (around $2) to 300 rupees to give a massage, they can earn 1,000 rupees to 2,500 rupees for sex work. That’s significantly more than what they would earn in farming jobs in their villages, typically between 150 rupees to 300 rupees a day.

Many of them have girlfriends, wives and children back in their villages. The masseurs keep their work secret from their families, Mr. Fox said.

Of the men featured in Mr. Fox’s show, the majority hails from the district of Mathura in the state of Uttar Pradesh and the rest from Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

Many move to Mumbai after witnessing friends who have gone before them sending money home. Some are trafficked by older male relatives already in the trade, since men are usually only wanted for sex work up to the age of 25, Mr. Fox found.

Charles Fox

The masseurs live in a very closed and secretive world, in close proximity to each other, often in very cramped living environments.

“All my massage encounters involve sex, but I always use a condom,” one 25-year-old masseur from Rajasthan told Mr. Fox.

Married with an 18-month-old son back in the village, he has been a masseur in Mumbai for three years after a dairy business he set up failed, a fact he has been too ashamed to admit to his father.

“Most of my meetings happen in hotel rooms, but I have some wealthy clients in the suburbs who phone me on my cell phone and I visit them in their homes,” he said, adding he earned 10,000 rupees ($200) to 12,000 rupees a month.

A 19-year-old masseur from Mathura was taken to Mumbai aged 15 under the pretence of getting a factory job, which never materialized. He refers to his Mumbai work as a “dirty job.” Another, a security guard at a top Mumbai hotel, moonlights as a masseur and has two to three sex clients a week to boost his income.

Mr. Fox was able to access the community, estimated at 1,000 in Mumbai, through the Samabhavana Society, a non-governmental organization.

Charles Fox

Male masseurs attract customers by rhythmically clinking a glass bottle. While some just offer massages, others are sex workers, too.

“They do it because they are facing abject poverty and that can make you do a lot of things,” said Jasmir Thakur, the head of Samabhavana. “Not all the masseurs are in the sex trade, some just give massage,” he added.

Samabhavana has assisted around 160 of these young men, helping them find alternative occupations, such as plumbing, electrician work and mobile phone repair.

“But we don't have any money at all right now to put more boys through this program or to offer counseling to the boys,” says Mr. Thakur, adding they are struggling to find funding. Samabhavana also has staff based in Mathura to dissuade families from letting their sons move to Mumbai.

There is a long tradition of masseurs in Mathura, which used to be a centre for “akhadas,” traditional wrestling schools. Many barbers who used to give massages to wrestlers to relax their muscles later migrated to Mumbai. Many schools have since closed but the tradition continues, albeit with this new sexual twist, Mr. Thakur said.

Charles Fox

Most male masseurs in Mumbai come from Mathura, a district that, historically, was a centre for wrestling schools. Male-on-male massage is used in the schools to relax muscle pain after strenuous wrestling practice.

“We are also talking to the panchayats (local governments) to create job opportunities for these boys and getting them job cards guaranteeing them work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which guarantees 100 days’ work,” Mr. Thakur said.

Mumbai Male Masseurs is on display at the Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, until Sept. 22, 2012.

Naomi Canton is a British freelance journalist based in the U.K. who writes about South Asian issues. She was previously a Special Correspondent at The Hindustan Times in Mumbai. You can email her at cantonnaomi@gmail.com, read her blogand follow her on Twitter @naomi2009.